1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weaving machine for a coil assembly of a rotary electric machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related arts, various methods have heretofore been proposed as a method of manufacturing a coil assembly of a rotary electric machine. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication 2002-176752 proposes a method in which a plurality of coil wire segments are simultaneously woven using a pair of plate-like winding cores placed in opposition to each other. Japanese Patent Application Publication 2004-104841 proposes a weaving method and a manufacturing apparatus for carrying out such a weaving method. In this method, operations are repeatedly executed to perform step of rotating one coil wire segment about its axis by 90 degrees with respect to the other coil wire segment while causing one coil wire segment to advance to the other coil wire segment by a half turn so as to increase an overlapping state between these coil wire segments and step of rotating one coil wire segment about its axis further by another angle of 90 degrees whereby one coil wire segment is sequentially woven into the other coil wire segment by a half turn.
Examples of a method of weaving a plurality of coil wire segments, each having a plurality of run portions, with respect to each other conceivably include methods listed below. Like the related art weaving machine being in use, for instance, there is one method in which the plural coil wire segments are woven with one coil wire segment caused to rotate (in revolution) on a circular orbit about the other coil wire segment placed in a fixed state while permitting the other coil wire segment to shift in a coil lengthwise direction by a coil pitch in one revolution. Another method is to weave two coil wire segments upon holding weaving areas of the two coil wire segments at a given angle with respect to a center and causing one of the two coil wire segments to rotate (in revolution) about the other one of the two coil wire segments on the circular orbit.
However, these methods are required to prepare the two coil wire segments crossing at an increased angle between an axis of one coil wire segment and an axis of the other coil wire segment. This results in an issue of deformations easily occurring in the coil wire segments and an issue of difficulties in carrying out weaving operations in a reliable manner at a high speed.